On
3.
4.
18
action rather than the action being
done by the actor. The first step to
avoiding the passive voice is rec-
ognizing it. Often, sentences with
the passive voice have the word by,
making the passive voice easy to
spot. The dog was lost by the dog
sitter. To make that sentence active,
take what comes after the by and
make that the subject. The dog sit-
ter lost the dog. Finding the passive
voice is harder when there is no by
as is in the example in question 1.
In that case, use this test: it will (al-
most 2 ) always work: look for a form
of the verb to be and a past parti-
ciple. Common forms of the verb
to be are is, am, are, was, and were,
been and being. Past participles are
past-tense words that usually end in
–d or –ed. There are lots of irregu-
lar past participles though, like lost.
So just look for a form of the verb
to be + a past tense word. To make
number 1 active, you have to sup-
ply the actor: My husband left the
dog home alone all day and he de-
stroyed the house. The other sen-
tences are not passive – they have
the form of the verb to be, but not
the past tense word.
Legal Writing pro Bryan Garner tells
us to think of a semicolon as “king
comma.” 3 It does “the work that
a comma might ordinarily do if it
weren’t for some need for a stron-
ger break in a sentence.” In my ex-
perience, some writers stay away
from semicolons because they are
afraid of them. Not in 2017! Use
a semicolon to separate two inde-
pendent clauses not joined by a
conjunction as in A. B is wrong be-
cause you don’t need a capital let-
ter after the semicolon. Under a
new-fangled approach sanctioned
by Garner, C is also correct because
a semicolon may be used instead of
a comma to separate two indepen-
dent clauses connected by a coordi-
nating conduction. Garner says, do
this when “the stronger break may
be useful to either help the reader
understand a complex statement or
to indicate more of a break than a
comma would provide.” 4 Our Legal
Writing Program professors wide-
ly eschewed Garner’s thinking here,
characterizing it as an unnecessary
“belt and suspenders” approach.
But if you want to take more risks in
2017, I say go for it!
All of these colon uses are correct.
The colon is like the semicolon, but
better. It “creates a pause rough-
ly equivalent to that of the semico-
lon. But unlike a semicolon, the co-
5.
6.
7.
lon points to what follows it . . . .” 5
Garner tells us to think of the colon
as an arrow or pointing finger. 6 In
A, the colon correctly lets the reader
know what logically flows from the
preceding clause. B shows us how
to use a colon to introduce a list.
Though not required, you may use
an introductory word like “follow-
ing, as follows, or here” before a co-
lon to introduce a long list. C shows
us the colon’s use in introducing a
quotation.
The most vexing issue that arises
with signals is when not to use a
signal. According to the Bluebook,
use no signal in these circumstanc-
es: (i) the cited authority “direct-
ly states the proposition, (ii) iden-
tifies the source of a quotation; or
(iii) identifies an authority referred
to in the text.” 7 New citers are of-
ten confused by the meaning of part
(i) of the rule. They mistakenly think
that if they are not using a direct
quote, they need a signal, like see.
But as long as the statement is a di-
rect proposition from the case, even
if paraphrased, you don’t need the
see. Question 5 is just that case.
I confess. I have trouble with which/
that and have to think about the rule
every time I encounter the problem.
I usually solve the problem with a
backwards approach – I think about
whether I need a comma or not. If I
need a comma, it must be which be-
cause you don’t use a comma with
that. That’s a hard approach to ex-
plain to students because they don’t
know when you need a comma. So
lately, I say to myself that-is-restric-
tive. The rule is to use that to intro-
duce a restrictive clause and which
(after a comma) to introduce a non-
restrictive clause. I have trouble vi-
sualizing a nonrestrictive clause so
I think of a nonrestrictive clause as
additional information as opposed
to limiting information. So here, in
A, that is restrictive, and thus re-
ferring to only classes that are on
Wednesdays. Which provides addi-
tional information (the location), so
the sentence is referring to all class-
es. Want some additional informa-
tion about those classes? They are
held on Wednesdays.
A nominalization is when you take
a verb and make it a noun, usual-
ly by adding –tion to the base verb
form. Lawyers and bureaucrats love
these. 8 You know who hates nomi-
nalizations? Readers. They result in
abstract text. The nominalization in
number 7 is determination. By un-
covering the buried verb, you make
THE VERMONT BAR JOURNAL • WINTER 2016-17
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
the writing more concrete and read-
able. C is the best because it gets
rid of the nominalization and the
passive voice – a win-win.
Periods (and commas) go inside
quotation marks. Semicolons and
colons go outside quotation marks.
Question marks and exclamation
points go inside or outside depend-
ing on whether they are part of the
original quotation. 9
Use a plural verb after a plural sub-
ject and a singular verb after a sin-
gular subject. A compound sub-
ject joined by and is plural. C is very
tricky. Garner tells us to use a “sin-
gular verb with two or more singular
subjects joined by or or nor.” 10
Congress is a singular noun. Add
‘s to the end of word to form the
possessive of a singular noun. So,
the po